Word.ws English Dictionary

wishing

Syllables: wish·ing/ˈwɪʃɪŋ/

wishing is the gerund of wish.

wishing is the present participle and gerund of wish.

Meaning of wish

Noun

wish (plural wishes)

  1. A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen.
    • It is my wish that the bequest (should) be given to an almshouse.
  2. An expression of such a desire, often connected with ideas of magic and supernatural power.
    • make a wish
  3. The thing desired or longed for.
    • My dearest wish is to see them happily married.
  4. (Sussex) A water meadow.

See all 11 meanings of wish

Forms of wishing

pluralwishings

Origin of wishing

From wish + -ing.

Words formed from wishing

Phrases with wishing

Words that rhyme with wishing

Questions about wishing

What is wishing the gerund of?
Wishing is the gerund of wish.
How do you pronounce wishing?
Wishing is pronounced /ˈwɪʃɪŋ/.

Words near wishing in the dictionary

  1. wishfully
  2. wishfulness
  3. wishfulnesses
  4. wishi
  5. wishin'
  6. wishing
  7. wishing away
  8. wishing bone
  9. wishing bones
  10. wishing cap
  11. wishing caps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wishing (page history and authors); wish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wishing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “wishing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wishing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.